Inking systems for offset printing and duplicating machines



April 17, 1962 I E GERICKE 3,029,729

INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES Filed April 20, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 April 17, 1962 E. GERICKE 3,029,729

INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES Filed April 20, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 II ll jm enfan' ERICH RIC E WW,

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April 1-7, 1962 E. GERICKE 3,0

INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES Filed April 20, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 3 Inventor: ERIC/l GER/(IKE ZUMM+ l 1 E. GERICKE April 17, 1962 INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed April 20, 1959 Int anion RICH GERICKE' WM,W+W

ApI-il 17, 1962 E. GERICKE 3,029,729

INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES Filed April 20, 1959 A e Sheets-Sheet 5 ERIC/4 GEKICKE Inventor April 17, 1962 E GERICKE 3,029,729

INKING SYSTEMS FOR OFFSET PRINTING AND DUPLICATING MACHINES Filed April 20, 1959 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 ERQIGH GE RIG/{E lam {wha d flrt-ys United States Patent 3,029,729 lNG SYdTEMS FUR OFFSET PRINTENG AND DUPLICATING MACHlNES Erich Gericke, Flemmingstrasse 14,

Eerlin-Steglitz, Germany Filed Apr. 29, 3359, Ser. No. 807,533

Claims priority, application Germany 0st. 31, 1958 5 Claims. (Cl. 101-451) This invention relates to inking systems for offset printing and duplicating machines in which the inking system comprises rollers so arranged that each alternate roller is mounted in a commond frame which can be tilted into the required position by means of a hand lever. When printing is completed such inking system are placed into an inoperative position to permit the rollers to be moved for cleaning or other purposes.

Printing" and duplicating machines are already known in which the inking system is controlled in the following manner: In order to place the inking system into inoperative position, that is to say in order to raise the inking frame and to place it against an upper limit stop, a control lever must first be placed in the oil position. Two catch levers must then be moved into a position in e which they will. release the tiltable frame. The latter can then be tilted into inoperative position by raising it by means of handles or levers. To perform this operation the actuation of five levers is therefore required.

Even skilled and experienced personnel find this complicated and time wasting. Nor does the arrangement comply with the requirements that progressive and modern printing and duplicating machines might be expected The arrangement according to the present invention, difiers from known arrangements in that it substantially simplifies the manipulation of the inking system and also economises in the number of structural elements that are required. The entire above-described operation of placing the inking systeminto inoperative position is now reduced to a single manipulation. The arrangement according to the present invention comprises only one lever which is provided with a forked member adapted slidably to engage a guide pin and thereby to retain the inking roller frame in the correct position for use. When printing operations have been completed, this lever is placed into an off position and by this movement the lever tiltably raises the inking roller frame into the inoperative position.

To prevent the control lever from being accidentally displaced out of its existing position on the inking roller frame, or from slipping when the inking roller frame is raised, a safety device is provided on the opposite side of the inking system which prevents the control lever from being displaced once the forked member ceases to be in engagement with its co-operating guide pin.

During operation of the machine, a catch mounted on the inking roller frame is retained in a position which permits the inking control lever to be pivotally deflected and operated. As soon as a second forked member becomes disengaged from its guide pin, the catch is released by a lever and a pin and automatically locks the control lever shaft in position.

A controlling operation by deflection of the control lever cannot therefore be performed unless the guide pin is engaged by the forked member, whereas the control lever and the inking roller frame form a rigid unit when the inking roller frame is raised. Should the catch fail to lock the control shaft, an abutment on the machine wall is so arranged as torprevent the inking roller frame from being raised. In other words, the several operations of controlling, locking, and raising the inking system are all performed with the aid of one control lever.

3,629,729 Patented Apr. 17, 1962 The advantage afforded by the present invention resides in that the mechanism is greatly simplified and structural elements are reduced to a minimum and that the operation of the machine is greatly facilitated.

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be hereinafter described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows in schematic form an offset printing machine with the inking system in the off position;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the inking system;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the inking system with the control lever in printing position;

FIG. 4 is a side view of the inking system with the control lever in the ofi position;

FIG. 5 shows the inking roller framein raised position, and

FIG. 6 is a side view of a safety mechanism for locking the control lever shaft in position.

In offset printing and duplicating machines the sheets are arranged in a stack maintained with its top sheet at a constant level by a feeler device controlling the height of a table upon which the stack rests. The sheets must be fed to the printing position one by one, and each sheet is detached from the stack by a blowing device raised by suckers, and conveyed between forwarding rollers to front and side lays for alignment thereby. A bail keeps the sheets flat and prevents them from buckling. When the sheets have been brought into register, the front edge of each sheet is abruptly picked up by grippers on a revolving impression cylinder. The sheet then passes between blanket and impression cylinders from which it receives the impression. All the rotating parts of the machine are driven by an electric motor, and the printing speed and operational rhythm of the machine can be controlled by a continuously variable transmission.

The impression is transferred to the sheets from an inked and damped foil on a plate cylinder by a blanket 1. Separation of the several rollers when in idling posi tion (position of rest),

II. Contact between the several rollers to provide all the rollers evenly with ink and damping fluid before the actual printing operation begins.

III. Contact between the two transfer rollers, the rubbing down rollers, and the printing foil for transferring the ink to the same.

When the printing operation is completed and the inking system is stopped, the inking roller frame must be raised to permit the rollers to be cleaned or replaced and to give access to components inside the machine.

Stopping of the inking system and raising of the tiltable roller frame 1 is effected by operating a control lever 2 (FIGS. 1, 2 and 3). Three or four alternative control positions of the inking system are established by the insertion of a pin 3 on the control lever 2 into one of a number of grooves in an arresting quadrant 4. A leaf spring 5 retains lever 2 in position. The end of lever 2 is provided with a forked member 6 which slides on a pin 7 secured to a side wall of the machine and permits the position of the inking roller frame to be varied. Before the frame is raised the inking system control lever 2 must be placed in the 05 position (FIG 1). This causes the frame 1 to be pushed upwards by the co-operation of the slot in the forked member 6 of the control lever and the fixed guide pin 7, so that the inking rollers 8 to 12 are separated (FIG. 4).

' By means of the control lever 2, the roller frame 1 can now be tiltably raised until the frame is retained by an abutment 13 on a wall 23 of the machine (FIG. 5). To prevent accidental displacement or disengagement due to careless handling of the control lever 2, a safety catch is provided on the side of the frame remote from that which carries the control lever. When the forked memher 5 is released from guide pin '7, the control shaft 14 is locked in position by engagement of a pin 15 with a catch 16.

A trip lever 17 mounted on the inking roller control shaft 14 carries a stud 19 which upon disengagement of a forked member 6 rom a guide pin 7 releases the catch 16 permitting it to be tilted by a spring 18 in such manner that pin 15 on control shaft 14 engages a recess in the catch and thus locks the control shaft 14 in position.

Catch 16 and spring 18 are mounted on a pin 29 fitted to a wall of the tiltable inking roller frame 1. The catch 16 acts on trip lever 17 by hearing on the stud 19. The deflection of lever 17 is limited by a hole 21 (-FIG. 6), into which a pin 22 on forked member 6 projects. To prevent the roller frame 1 from being raised otherwise than in the locked position the frame 23 of the machine is provided with an abutment 24 which blocks catch '16 if this is not in locking position when the roller frame is raised.

I claim: i

1. In a printing machine having an inking system the combination comprising a frame, a roller frame pivotally mounted in said frame, a plurality of inking rollers, each alternate inking roller being mounted in said frame and the other inking rollers being mounted in said roller frame, a guidepin on said frame, and a control lever on said roller frame having a forked member cooperating with said guide pin for moving said roller frame to various positions, said forked member beingdisengageable from said guide pin in one position of said lever to permit movement of said roller frame to an inoperative position.

2. A printing machine according to claim 1 wherein a safety device cooperates with a second guide pin for preventing said control lever from being moved when said forked member becomes disengaged from its cooperating guide pin.

3. In a printing machine having an inking system the combination comprising a frame, a roller frame pivotally mounted in said frame, a plurality of inking rollers, each alternate inking roll-er being mounted in said frame and the other inking rollers being mounted in said roller frame, a guide pin on said frame, a control lever on said roller frame for moving said roller frame to various positions Where it may be locked in position by said guide pin,

a forked member on saidcontrol lever cooperating with said guide pin, a shaft connected to said control lever, a trip lever on said shaft, a stud on said trip lever, a Second pin on said shaft, a catch in engagement with said second pin which is released when said forked member slides on its cooperating guide pin, and means whereby on disengagement of said forked member and said guide pin, said catch engages said second pin on said shaft and References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,983,948 Rutkoskie Dec. 11; 1934 2,802,417 Forbes Aug. 13, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS Switzerland Feb. '2, 1931 

